


Discoveries and Boundaries

by fiface



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, Football, Gen, High School, High School AU, I swear, M/M, Magic, Magic AU, Other, Pining, dusty library, grimoire, i'll fix these later, larry stylinson - Freeform, one day i will get the hang of tagging, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 20:07:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4890373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiface/pseuds/fiface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tumble in an abandoned library leads to five boys discovering a part of themselves they never knew, and forging friendships that they never imagined. </p><p>Or in which Harry Styles gets detention with four other boys and has to catalogue an old library, and when one of the boys falls through the floor, they end up with magic powers and all the problems that come with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story forever and a day ago over on tumblr. I had completely forgotten that it even existed, and when I re-read it, I kind of fell a little bit in love with it again. I haven't got a heap written, but this... I think I will write more of this because we need more Magic in our lives.

Mr Cowell stared at the five students standing before him, a heavy scowl and his displeasure were easily discernible on his face.

“I am very disappointed in all five of you, very disappointed,” the school principal said, his voice low, turning his head to look at each student in turn, before clearing his throat and glancing down at his desk, before looking back at the students as a whole.

“Zayn, Liam, Niall, Louis and Harry. You are all in trouble for breaking various rules, some more serious than others,” at that, he glanced at Zayn and Louis and both of them shifted uncomfortably.

“Normally, I’d just give you a lunchtime detention, and be done with it,” Cowell drawled slowly, “But, just a simple detention doesn’t seem like it’s enough. So, I will be setting an example with the five of you. For the next two weeks, all of you will be in lunchtime, and after school, detention. I certainly hope this will drive a point across to you lot, and the rest of the student body,” his tone left no room for objection.

Although none of the five boys were happy about detention, they all looked relieved that the detention was their only punishment, that they weren’t being suspended.

“However,” the principal continued after a pause, “Your detention will not consist of sitting in a classroom, writing lines, doing homework, or staring at the clock. No, I have something planned for the lot of you,”

The five teenage males shifted at their principals words. Though Mr Cowell was strict, he was fair, it couldn’t be that bad.

The principal stood from his chair, walked around his desk, and paused before the door.

“Follow me, lads,” the man said, sounding surprisingly jovial, for someone currently dealing out a detention to a group of miscreants.

The five boys exchanged nervous glances before following Cowell out of the office.

Not a single one of the boys knew where they were headed, and each face held similarly apprehensive expressions.

The boys followed their principal down the empty corridor and outside. The school the boys attended was large, with multiple buildings, situated on the edge of a large forest. The school, Harke Academy, was old and well established in the local area. Although the majority of the buildings were old, the place was dotted with a few newer buildings. The interior of all the buildings were modern and up-to-date with the required technologies that students would need for their education.

There were a few buildings dotting the schools landscape that students were not allowed entrance to. A few students had been known to break into some of these buildings, although the punishment was worse than the reward of breaking and entering, so it wasn’t a particularly common pastime for the students.

It appeared, to the five troublesome boys, that they were headed in the direction of a small cluster of these old buildings.

Mr Cowell stopped in front of a large house, one that no student ever even attempted to break into. It was actually the old library and it had been unused by students and faculty members alike, for longer than the boys had been attending the school for.

Mr Cowell unlocked the door with an old skeleton key, and the door opened with a loud squawking noise that set all their teeth on edge.

The principal turned to look at the five students who stood obediently behind him.

“The five of you will be cataloguing all the books in this library, so they can be transferred to the main library. You will find that, inside is paper, clipboards and pens. We want the book title, the author, the date of publication and the genre written please. You must take care, some of these books are old and may be brittle. It WILL be dusty, so expect sneezing,”

The man eyed the five of them accusingly.

“You will have to come by my office each detention so I can give you the key and come back at the end to return it. Attending these detentions is mandatory,”

With that, the tall, dark haired man turned on his heel and left, leaving five boys who all looked like they would rather be anywhere else, standing on the outskirts of a building they really did not want to enter.

“Well,” Liam began, eyeing the other boys, before peering into the old, dark library. “Let’s go in?” he suggested cautiously and lead the way, followed by the curly haired Harry, the brooding Zayn, the blonde, Irish Niall and Louis Tomlinson.

“This is stupid!” Harry spat, glaring into the sudden darkness of the room. He quickly found a light switch, but scowled when he flicked it on, but it didn’t actually turn on. “No power, great. Seriously, what is this? The middle ages?” he couldn’t help but sneer, his tone evident even to the other boys.

“Aw, is ickle Harrykins scared of the dark?” Louis asked, laughing, from a few feet away.

“Shut up Tomlinson,” Harry snapped, reaching out a hand in the dark to whack the boy up the back of his head. There was a yelp as his fingers made contact.

“Fuck off Styles,” the boy screeched, with a laugh.

“I’m serious, Louis,” Harry said as they all entered another room, one that was also pitch black. “How are we meant to do this if we can’t even see what we are doing?”

Harry was actually surprised that none of them had tripped over anything as they moved about, feeling their way around the darkened building they had been thrust into almost unwillingly.

A small, but bright light flickered on, casting everything in its little glow an orange tint. Liam smiled eerily from behind his phone.

“I’m so happy for the invention of these devices,” he said, sounding oddly like an old man. “I mean, not only do they make phone calls and send text messages, but they also have this miraculous little thing called a light,” although his tone was slightly mocking, there was also a hint of serious gratitude to whoever invented phones and all the little add-ons.

Harry actually wanted to smack himself for not thinking of it first. It was such a logical step to take these days, and he had no idea why the thought didn’t strike him. He was always using his phone as a torch at home, rather than turning his light on to head to the bathroom in the middle of the night. With a shake of his curly head, he pulled out his own little piece of technology, and switched the torch on, the others quickly following.

Five small beams of light were swung around, but, to their despair, they still couldn’t see much more than a few paces in front of themselves.

A loud squawk of surprise fell from Niall, who was standing just to the left of Harry, as the blonde boy walked backwards into a waist high set of drawers.

“What an odd place to put a gangly thing like this,” Harry heard the Irish lad mutter, as he began rifling through the draws. Harry turned his torch in another direction, but it just fell on Louis, who was blinking blearily at him, with a small glare on his face.

“Don’t shine that in my eyes,” the boy snapped, trying to shield his face, but in turn, shining his own torch in his eyes instead. Harry snorted, grinning at the other boy. An excited exclamation distracted Harry from making any comment about Louis’ intelligence, and he turned and saw Niall beaming at them all, holding up a bunch of white candles.

“Candles, boys, candles!”

“Is there any lighters in there as well, Niall, or were you just going to wave your fingers, and light them by magic?” Liam asked him, frowning. Harry shot Liam an amused look. Though he didn’t really know the other boy that well, he had come to know, over the years, that Liam was rarely short with people. Instead he was friendly and calm.

“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Niall said quietly, looking down at the candles forlornly.

“Don’t be rude, Payne,” Zayn suddenly said, stepping toward Niall and pulling out a lighter, and setting flame to candle. He quickly handed each boy a candle and smiled at Niall.

“Well, that’s the first time I’ve ever been glad someone smokes,” Harry muttered, receiving his candle with a small smile of gratitude towards the darker boy.

Although Harry didn’t like to admit it, he was slightly intimidated by the tanned boy. Zayn had always been cool and distant to the majority of his class mates, and although he was on the football team, he didn’t associate with them.

That was the one thing all five boys had in common. They were all on the football team. But not one of them actually hung out together outside of practices and games. They had never bothered to attempt to become friends, all having their own groups that they were well established in.

“Now, to find the books,” Liam muttered, drawing Harry’s attention back to focus. Though the candles were not bright, there was more light cast then from the phones. With wax dripping down the candles, the five boys set off once more.

It was Louis that bellowed out after he accidently knocked a large pile of books down onto himself. Harry had almost fallen over with laughter as the slim boy was knocked to the ground by the large volumes.

“I’m so glad you aren’t this much of a klutz on the field,” he told the boy gleefully as he offered a hand. The scowl that Louis directed at him was almost becoming a common occurrence. Harry had never thought of Louis as being a particularly annoyed person, but from the glares he was constantly receiving, he was sure he might have to re-evaluate his opinion.

“Shut up, Styles,” the boy snapped, although his tone was light-hearted, it didn’t seem to gel with his expression. Harry grinned at him.

“We found some books!” he called out to the others, who were all in different directions. Not one of the five boys had ever been inside this building, so none of them knew where they were, or where they were really supposed to be.

“I found the stuff we are meant to use to catalogue this stuff,” Liam called back. As Harry turned back to Louis, who was busy dusting himself off, he could hear the others approach from multiple directions.

“What happened here?” Zayn asked as he arrived. Louis gave him a tight smile.

“The books fell on me. They just attacked me for no reason!” the boy exclaimed, exaggeratedly. Zayn snorted.

“Sure, Lou, whatever you reckon. You’ve one wild imagination boy,” he said. Harry grinned. Louis pouted at them.

“Ask Harry, he was here, he saw them just up and attack me, the evil monkeys!” Harry outright laughed.

“Yeah, they just got up on their little book legs, and started attacking him, swords and all,” Harry said, trying to stop from guffawing and keep a serious expression. He couldn’t manage it, unlike Louis, whose lips were still pouted, and his eyes were wide with earnest grievance, and a nod of approval at Harrys’ words.

“No, Louis, do not turn him into another one of you. Harry was just fine before being turned into some weird altruistic being that keeps a straight face whilst telling a lie and with such a wild imagination that it’s almost impossible to figure out how he comes up with this stuff. Just don’t ruin the only normal member of our team… or detentionee,” Zayn moaned, face-palming. Louis grinned at him.

“You’re just jealous because you are too uptight to be like me,”

Harry snickered as Zayn poked his tongue out at the shorter boy immaturely. 

“You’re just a fool,” Zayn retaliated, turning to Liam, who appeared at his shoulder and was holding out a blue clipboard and pen. “Thanks, man," 

 

Liam passed a clipboard and pen to each boy, including Niall, who was sucking his right thumb whilst holding his candle with his left. 

 

"I burnt it,” he complained, as he took the proffered items. Liam grinned at him, and rubbed his shoulder. 

 

“So, how the hell are we supposed to ‘catalogue’ books? I’m not a librarian. I try to avoid libraries as much as possible,” Louis muttered, rubbing his face, despair evident on his good looking features.

 

Harry stared at Louis in amusement for a moment, before turning to look at Liam.

 

“Yeah, you’re the smart one Liam, how do we ‘catalogue’ books?” he asked, candle in one hand, clipboard in the other, flapping it toward the taller boy.

 

“How should I know? I’m no librarian either. I’ve never done this before,” Liam said, shaking his head, and lowering his candle to see the books better. “Maybe we should pile the books and then just write down the stuff needed, what was it? Title, author, publication, genre?” he didn’t sound so very sure, but he nodded his head, as though he knew for sure, offered Harry his candle to hold, and then started stacking the tumbled books into small piles.

 

“Uh, should we get something to put the candles in? We don’t have enough hands to hold them and do this,” Niall asked, glancing between Harry and Liam.

 

Liam glanced up at the blonde boy, and then nodded his head.

 

“Yeah, you go and find some glasses or something, if you can,” he told him, and continued moving the books.

 

Niall scuttled off, heading back towards the entrance of the room, where he had found the candles to begin with. He returned moments later with two glasses.

 

“Sorry, guys, this was all I could find,” he told them, and then let Harry place his two in the glasses, and then put it down near Liam.

 

“How about,” Zayn began, straightening up from his position against the wall just behind him. “One of us read the titles, and another one writes it down, the others can just go exploring, see if you can find anything interesting. We aren’t really going to be able to do much cataloguing while we can’t see. We can talk to Cowell about getting the power put back on tomorrow,”

 

Harry, Louis, Niall and Liam all agreed.

 

“Liam, you can read the stuff out and I’ll write it down. Louis is more likely to go mad if he has to stay still for that long,” Niall suggested, smirking at Louis, who grinned serenely back at him.

 

“That’s for sure,” Louis agreed, nodding his head emphatically, before turning to Harry and Zayn. “Come on boys, let’s go exploring,” Harry followed along, behind the shorter boy, with Zayn following him. They had to pick their way between piles of books. Some were metres high, and some barely reached their waists, but all were stacked precariously, and looked as though just the breeze of them walking passed would knock them over.

 

Harry sighed, wishing for what felt like the millionth time, that they either had electricity to see by, or that he wasn’t even in detention. As he followed along behind Louis he thought about how he had even gotten into this situation.

 

It was all because he had fallen behind in classes… or, more to the point, he hadn’t handed in any assignments that year, and was failing. He had to catch up on every one of his missed assignments, and suffer this torturous detention where he actually had to do team work.

 

Seriously, he didn’t do books, and now he was stuck in a musty old library that was tickling his nose with four other boys he only knew because they were on the same football team. They never spoke outside of practice or games, and now he had to spend the next two weeks with them. He had nothing in common with them and really, he wasn’t really interested in making friends with them.

 

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a secret door or something?” Harry was actually surprised when it was Zayn that asked that question. The boys voice was filled with wonder and excitement, and Harry turned to look at him, grinning. Just because he didn’t really want to get to know the other boys, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be amused or have fun with them while stuck in the sucky situation they were in.

 

“Oh my God, that would be awesome!” Louis exclaimed from in front of Harry, turning around and bumping into him, almost knocking Harry’s candle out of his hands.

 

“It really would! Imagine if we just grabbed a book in a bookcase and wham, a door opened, and we entered another room!” the excitement in Zayns’ voice was increasing, and Harry couldn’t help the excitement that started filling himself at the very thought.

 

It actually reminded him of a dream he had as a kid, where he was walking through some old house, and he discovered a secret room, and inside the room was all this weird stuff, and magic started. He laughed at the memory.

 

“Too bad we haven’t come across a bookshelf,” Harry muttered, peering out into the darkness. He stopped when Louis giggled.

 

“There’s a bookcase just over here,” Louis said, leading them closer to a wall. Zayn actually giggled as well, as they stopped before it, and he lifted a tanned hand, and started pulling the spines of the books. Harry could see the glee on his face, and felt a childish joy rush through himself, as he joined in, pulling out books as well. A completely carefree laugh exploded out of his chest, one of the insanely weird ones that made him wonder how a noise like that even came from himself.

 

Suddenly, Louis was yelling, and everything went crazy. There was a lot of crashing and banging, and Harry swung around, to find Louis missing, as well as massive hole in the floor.

 

“Oh my God! LOUIS!?” he yelled, rushing towards where the boy had been standing, falling to his knees and looking down the gap, holding his candle out over the edge, trying to see down. He couldn’t see anything, but dust was rising from the hole.

 

“LOUIS?” he screamed down, when the boy didn’t respond. He felt Zayn land next to him, and heard his yells for Louis as well. Panic was gripping his heart, and he was absolutely petrified that the boy must be badly injured, or dead.

 

Finally, after what felt like forever, they heard muffled coughing, and a groan of pain.

 

“Harry? Zayn?” Louis’ voice came floating up to them, and it was possibly the sweetest sound Harry had ever heard, and he sighed with such relief.

“Are you alright?” he called down, automatically wanting to smack himself for such a stupid question.

 

“I, uh, yea, I think so, no broken bones,” the answer came back after a few moments, though it wasn’t exactly a firm answer. Louis’ voice was shakey at best, and Harry had an insane urge to hug the boy.

 

“Do you think you can get out of there?” Zayn called down to him, trying to add his own candle to what little light Harry’s candle was giving.

 

“I don’t know, I can’t see anything,” came the distant answer. Harry felt the worry increase in his stomach. That was not the tone of someone that was completely fine and Harry wondered what type of damage that fall could’ve done to the slight boy.

 

“How far did you fall?” Zayn called down again, his voice tense, as he strained his eyes, leaning as far out as he dared.

 

“Uh, about… maybe, three metres or so,” came the muffled response, followed by a groaning.

 

“Louis, hang in there, we’ll get you out from there soon, okay,” Harry called down, trying to stop his voice from shaking, trying to send down whatever support he could manage.

 

Harry and Zayn sat back on their haunches, and looked at each other for a moment, considering.

 

“Do you think we could jump down, without injuring ourselves?” Harry asked, trying to mentally calculate the risks they would be taking.

 

“I think it depends on how much rubble is in the way, if there’s too much, we run the chance of landing on something and breaking our legs,” Zayn said, his voice thoughtful as he thought about the situation.

 

Harry leaned back over the edge, and called down to Louis.

 

“Can you move the rubble and junk from around the bottom? We are going to come down and get you,”

 

Louis didn’t respond, but there was grunting and scraping, as the injured boy did as asked. A few moments later, Louis called back up to them.

 

“As good as I can manage,” his voice was pained and panting, but there was no hesitation in his tone.

 

Zayn and Harry glanced at each other, and then, edged their way over the hole, one at a time, and dropped down.

 

Fear was coursing through Harry’s veins as he fell. But he landed safely, with an oof, and Zayn landed moments later, with a curse.

 

With their falls, the flames on their candles had been extinguished, so they were left in darkness. With a flip of his wrist, a lighter appeared in Zayn’s hand and he lit the sticks with a flourish, and the two of them turned to look at Louis, who was sitting down, off to the side, blood dripping down from his hairline and along his pale, dusty face.

 

Harry wasn’t surprised to see tears lingering in the blue eyes, and it wrenched at his heart. He rushed to Louis, and knelt before him, touching his forehead gently, tilting his head towards the small light.

 

“Looks like a surface cut to me,” he offered, his fingers trailing softly down the boys cheeks, and along his shoulders. He ran his hands over the shorter boys chest and abdomen, looking for anything that might indicate broken bones.

 

Louis sat stock still, letting Harry search for any obvious contusions. He flinched a couple of times, but he resolutely refused to make a sound. Harry’s heart tightened in his chest at the look on the other boys face. He stared straight into those blue eyes, and was sure that Louis couldn’t possibly miss the fear in his own eyes.

 

Harry broke contact when he heard a gasp come from Zayn.

 

“Oh, my god, guys, look at this!” he exclaimed, whipping out his phone to add extra light to the situation. Harry automatically reached a hand out to Louis, helping him to his feet. He didn’t miss the winces that escaped the boy. And he helped him walk over to where Zayn was standing, and gaped.

 

Before them stood, a tall, ornately carved table, and on it, sat the thickest, leather bound book that they had ever seen. Candelabras surrounded it, covered thickly with dust and cobwebs, and Harry felt a tingling sensation run up his spine. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just, something he wasn’t expecting.

 

He stepped forward, and wiped the cobwebs off the candles, and indicated for Zayn to light them, to give them more light. Zayn lit the candles, and stepped back. The room was suddenly so much brighter, and the flickering candles lit up the book.

 

The three boys stepped toward it as one, and gasped as they read the cover.

 

“LIAM! NIALL!” the three boys bellowed as loudly as they could manage.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was also written back when I first started this story three years ago. I have every intention on adding more and more, because I irritated myself when I found the story and discovered that it was unfinished, so please feel free to harass me to write more of it. :)

Not once did their eyes leave the old book before them, nor did they dare touch it. Harry felt drawn in; his focus did not waver once. He heard, distantly, as either Niall or Liam curse from above them, out the hole they had previously fallen down.

“What the hell happened?” he recognised Liam’s dulcet tone, but didn’t turn to look, didn’t shift his gaze from the book.

“Nevermind that, get down here. Come on, jump!” Zayn called out, frustrated.

After a few hesitating seconds and two loud thumps, Liam and Niall landed… And gasped.

There was a resounding silence for a few moments, as all five boys stared at the book.

“Does anybody else feel absolutely drawn to this book? Like you’ve been waiting your entire life for this very moment?” Louis asked, shakily from beside Harry.

Harry couldn’t even drag his eyes away from the book to look at the injured boy at his side. He could feel, faintly, the worry for him, in the recesses of his mind, but, the hold the book had on him was almost too much for him to handle and he couldn’t focus on anything else.

“Yes,” he breathed heavily, answering Louis’ question as best as he could.

The other lads murmured their agreement as well, though, despite their proximity to Harry, their voices sounded distant and muffled, as though he were under water.

He had no idea how long the five of them had been standing, crowded around the mysterious book, staring, but it felt as though time dragged on slowly.

Finally, after what felt like centuries, but could only possibly have been a few minutes, Harry was able to break away from the book. He turned to look at the other boys, and wasn’t surprised to see them all still staring at the book, with completely blank expressions, except for Louis, whose face was drawn into a pained grimace, ashen, and coated with drying blood.

To be honest, Harry thought the boy looked like he had just been beat up by a whole gang of giants. He was actually surprised that Louis was still standing and so he reached out a hand, just in case the boy fell. Just the mere touch from Harry awoke Louis from his stupor, and the boy turned his startling blue eyes on him.

“What the hell?” he asked Harry, repeating Liam’s earlier question, just on a different topic. Harry shrugged nervously back at him.

“That was probably one of the strangest…” Harry began, trailing off as he glanced back at the book. Although he still felt drawn to it, there wasn’t the same hold over him as there was the first time.

“Oh, God,” he heard Liam mutter, and Harry glanced over to see him shaking himself out of his own stupor, Niall, who was standing beside him, was also awakening, and he looked slightly dazed. But, it was Zayn that surprised Harry the most.

The tanned boy with the bad boy attitude, and the brooding good looks, was reaching out a tentative hand towards the book that had him absolutely fascinated. There was no blank look on his face, or stupor in his eyes, but rather, a look of complete fulfilment and satisfaction, like everything in his life finally made sense.

To be honest, the look on Zayn’s face calmed Harry, filled him with a serenity he had never felt before in his own life, and despite his own hesitations, he did not try to stop the lad from touching his desire.

As Zayn’s hand finally rested on the book, an odd feeling rushed through Harry, not exactly unpleasant, but, odd enough that he noticed. It was the tensing of Louis’ arm beneath his own hand that made Harry turn back to look at the boy. The look on Louis’ face was so similar to Zayn’s that it was almost uncanny.

“Guys,” Zayn whispered, as he opened the cover. “I think it’s a Grimoire,”

Harry felt a superstitious fear sweep through him anew as he heard Zayn’s assumptions.

“What’s a grimoire?” Louis’ curious voice broke the fear in Harry, and a burst of laughter not only escaped his lips, but the other three boys as well. As the chortles of tense amusement died away, Harry realised that Louis was glaring at them.

“No, seriously, what is a grimoire?” Louis repeated, his tone scathing, eyes narrowed. Harry barely retained a wince at the deadly glare the boy was shooting them.

“A grimoire, Lou,” Zayn began, sounding for all the world, like he had spent many an hour explaining things to Louis, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement. “Is a book, like, a journal of types. Similar to a ‘book of shadows,’ if you will. It’s filled with magics and secrets,” his tone was the perfect mixture of seriousness and amusement as Louis scoffed.

“Book of shadows,” Louis mocked, giggling. Harry closed his eyes, shaking his head. He should’ve realised that, although Louis was probably the most imaginative one of the five of them, proven by numerous pranks of teachers, and fellow students, he was probably also the one that held the least belief and conviction in anything remotely imaginative.

Louis’ mocking was ignored, as Liam stepped passed Zayn and turned a brittle page of the book that was the centre of all their thoughts.

“Guys, I think this is real, like, it’s seriously old,” he flipped through more pages, and Harry watched as his eyes widened with each new page. Harry waited for him to say something else, but his attention remained solely on the book, as he perused each page quickly.

“Oh, I know. Why don’t we start up a little witchy club, like a bunch of girls,” Louis mocked.

Minutes ago, Harry had been feeling worry for the injured lad, but suddenly, he felt like smacking him. Who would’ve thought that Louis Tomlinson was such sarcastic bastard? Harry realised he wasn’t the only one levelling a glare at the boy. Zayn and Niall’s eyes were narrowed in heated glares at Louis, though Liam remained flipping through the pages.

“We can hold hands in a circle and recite a little spell out of the spell book,” Louis said snarkily, and held out two dirty hands, one to Zayn and one to Harry, a cold smirk on his lips.

“Okay boys,” Liam said, grinning as he looked up, grabbing Zayn and Niall’s hands. Harry was positive Liam hadn’t realised that Louis was being sarcastic. The look Liam levelled at them all, however, was enough that all the boys clasped hands without comment, even Louis.

“Now, close your eyes and speak with me,” Liam said happily.

Harry gulped. Fear was churning in his stomach, he may not exactly believe in magic and witchcraft, but he had never been one to play in anything that could be remotely supernatural. He had a complete fear that if his heavily religious, deceased, grandmother were to find out, she would haunt him forever. He glanced at Louis, who was rolling his eyes, a teasing smirk on his dusty, bloodied face. Harry tightened his grip on Louis’ hand, warningly. 

Liam began speaking, and the four boys repeated. The words forming in their minds as Liam spoke, so that they said them at almost exactly the same time as him.

“Spondeo iuramentum deorum   
veterum sociare animam   
a terra verti, ignis, aqua, et spiritu.   
Obligu animam meam meo hoc curculo de vita tuenda operari.   
Ut magiae meae vires solver coniungere in unum, iam in nostrum fortunam.”

Despite how the words echoed ominously throughout the room, and the bizarre feeling that fluttered through Harry’s skull, he couldn’t help the amusement tingle throughout him as he released Niall’s sweaty hand, and tried to let go of Louis’.

He tried shaking Louis off, but the boys grip was almost painfully tight. He turned to look at the boy, demand the release of his hand, but stopped dead. Louis’ eyes were pressed tightly shut, he was biting his bottom lip and his face was screwed up, as though in unbelievable pain. He still had a firm grip on Zayn’s hand as well, who was also staring at him.

“Louis?” Harry asked, tugging at his hand. Louis must’ve let go of both Harry and Zayn’s hands at the same time, because they both were finally free, but he just stood there, the same grimace upon his face, eyes still closed.

“Louis?” Zayn called, but he got no response. Zayn whirled on Liam, who was standing there, lips pressed into a thin line, face worried.

“What the hell was that?” Zayn demanded of Liam, his eyes narrowed, demanding an answer.

“I… uh… it was a binding spell. I don’t know. I didn’t have any control over what I was doing. My mind just went blank, and then, when I realised what was happening, we were all standing in a circle and had just finished the chant,” Liam said, his voice shaky and upset.

Zayn groaned, and they all turned their attention back on Louis and were startled to see him staring at them all with wide eyes.

“Louis? Are you okay?” Zayn asked, reaching a hand out to the boy, undecided as to whether he was going to touch him or not.

“Do I look okay? I’ve just fallen through the goddamn floor, and I’m surrounded by idiots that believe we just had a binding spell put on us,” he snapped, his voice sounding slightly hysterical, backing away from his four companions.

Harry really wasn’t sure if he wanted to smack the boy or hug him. He was currently leaning towards the former, and he let out a frustrated groan.

“Seriously, dude, will you calm your horses?” he asked, shaking his head. Louis just glared at him. “Seriously, it’s like you’re PMSing,” Harry said with a snort. The glare darkened and then Louis turned away and limped towards the rubble that had fallen down when he had fallen through the floor, arms folded across his chest petulantly.

“He gets like that, sometimes,” Zayn whispered with a shake of his head, a small smirk on his lips.

“What? A temperamental twat?” Harry asked, frowning. The smirk on Zayn’s lips widened to a full blown grin.

“Got it in one,”

Harry subconsciously planned on getting to know that temperamental twat over the next two weeks of detention. He had the weirdest feeling that he was going to be spending a lot more than just detentions with the four boys he was currently with.

“Uh, guys, I don’t know about you, but, I think we should try and find a way back up to the main level?” Niall asked, randomly, his eyes skittering to the hole in the ceiling. “I mean, my bag is up there, along with my food,” he sounded so desperate and despairing about his food being so far away from him, that Harry burst into a loud guffaw, clapping the blonde boy on the shoulder.

“You can never even manage a match without needed to fill your stomach, Niall,” he teased. The Irish lad just grinned sheepishly back at him, shrugging his shoulders with a ‘what can you do?’ look on his face.

“Well, we should explore down here first, see if we can find a door or something?” Liam suggested, his voice still shaky from his early blanking out. The three other boys agreed, not even bothering attempting to ask Louis, who was still busy sulking near the rubble.

The four of them turned in separate directions, picking up their discarded candles, and searching for a door, or entrance to the room they were in. It didn’t take long for Niall to call out his find. Obviously, his nose for the quickest way to his food came through and discovered the door first.

The boys all rushed to the door, after Zayn had the quick thinking to blow the candelabras on the table the book was sitting on, out.

Harry was halfway up the stairs, when he realised that Louis wasn’t with them. He turned to look behind himself, and saw the boy standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at their retreating forms, with a wide, terrified look on his pale face.

“Louis? Come on!” Harry called down to him.

“It hurts to walk, Harry, I’m not going to attempt those freaking stairs! There is like a kabillion of them!” Louis cried out, the look on his face saying quite plainly, that if he wasn’t hurt, he would be stomping his foot.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Louis, just come on up! We haven’t got all day, Niall’s offering food!” Harry urged. He stood, halfway up the stairs, his back tingling with the fear of being in the dark, the other boys no longer on the stairs with him, and Louis standing at the bottom of the stairs like a spoiled child. He glared down at the offending boy, but the glare fell from his face almost instantly, when he was sure he saw tears glistening in Louis’ eyes.

With a huff, Harry started walking back down the stairs, towards the boy, whose face remained a stoic mask, with glistening eyes, until Harry stopped directly in front of him. Suddenly the blank face turned into a small, tentative smile as Harry wrapped his arm around Louis’ waist and helped him walk up the stairs.

“There, now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked Louis, patronisingly, as he extracted himself from him instantly, almost as though burned. The hurt look on Louis face, however, almost made him regret moving away from him so fast.

Louis made an indecipherable noise, and moved forward, into the main level, and began searching for the others. Harry followed along behind, and felt a sense of déjà vu as he walked, and he wondered if one of the reasons Louis was walking so slow was because he was scared the floor was going to give out on him again.

As Louis hesitated in taking another step, Harry stepped forward to walk next to him, and casually threw an arm around his shoulders reassuringly.

“The floor isn’t going to constantly give out under you, Louis,” he told the boy, as casually as he could muster. Louis sent him a thankful smile, and started walking again, trying to seem more confident then he obviously felt.

“I know that,” Louis told him, not looking at him as he spoke. “I’m just sore is all,” he muttered. Harry tightened his grip on the boys shoulders slightly, but didn’t say anything.

After a few minutes of walking through the darkened building, they managed to find the other three, who were all standing at the spot where Louis fell through the floor. Liam was peering down, while Niall was munching on some food, and Zayn was leaning against a bookcase, arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his tanned face.

“You guys sure know how to keep people waiting,” he told them. “Shall we leave here now? Make a complaint to Mr Cowell, maybe get let out of the remainder of detentions?” the last was said with wishful thinking. They all knew what Mr Cowell was like, and though he may be fair, he wasn’t exactly a very lenient man. He’d probably just come out with something about being safer next time.

“Well, we can at least ask for the electricity to be put back on,” Liam suggested, as he turned to face them. His face was still pale, and he didn’t look so sure of anything he said, like he was worried that he was suddenly going to go blank again and wake up after having done another chant.

“So, uh, tomorrow, in detention, shall we take another look at that book?” Zayn asked his face lighting up at the thought. Harry wanted to say no, he didn’t want to see the book again, or go back down into the basement like area of the house again, but he knew that it would be pointless to say. Zayn would do it anyway, and the others would just follow along, because, honestly, it would be better the trying to catalogue books.

“Sure, whatever,” Harry said instead, turning away from Zayn. He felt Louis shrug under his arm, and heard Niall say something unintelligible around a mouthful of food, which he figured was some type of confirmation. Liam didn’t say anything, but the look on his face was enough. But, they all knew that Zayn would ignore it anyway.

With a sigh, and without looking back at the hole in the floor, the five boys turned and walked out of their first disastrous detention together.

Each one of the boys felt a weird sensation tumble around their stomachs as they exited the building, though not a single one of them realised what that feeling was.


End file.
